User entertainment and engagement enhancements to search system

ABSTRACT

According to one aspect of the present invention, a method of actively engaging a user of a search system can include receiving from the user a search query for a search of a corpus of information and providing the user with search results for the search. The user can also be prompted to participate in a search-related activity wherein at least one aspect of the search-related activity is dependent on a context of the search. User input for performing the search-related activity can be accepted and an activity response can be provided to the user.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates in general to searching a corpus ofdocuments, and in particular to search systems and methods utilizing oneor more search-related activities to actively engage a user of a searchsystem.

The World Wide Web (Web) provides a large collection of interlinkedinformation sources in various formats including texts, images, andmedia content and relating to virtually every subject imaginable. As theWeb has grown, the ability of users to search this collection andidentify content relevant to a particular subject has becomeincreasingly important, and a number of search service providers nowexist to meet this need. In general, a search service provider publishesa Web page via which a user can submit a query indicating what the useris interested in. In response to the query, the search service providergenerates and transmits to the user a list of links to Web pages orsites considered relevant to that query, typically in the form of a“search results” page.

Query response generally involves the following steps. First, apre-created index or database of Web pages or sites is searched usingone or more search terms extracted from the query to generate a list ofhits (usually target pages or sites, or references to target pages orsites, that contain the search terms or are otherwise identified asbeing relevant to the query). Next, the hits are ranked according topredefined criteria, and the best results (according to these criteria)are given the most prominent placement, e.g., at the top of the list.The ranked list of hits is transmitted to the user, usually in the formof a “results” page (or a set of interconnected pages) containing a listof links to the hit pages or sites. Other features, such as sponsoredlinks or advertisements, may also be included on the results page.

The web pages provided by the search service providers via which a usercan submit a query vary somewhat in layout, content, look-and-feel, etc.but generally include a text box for input of keywords for use in thequery. Results of the search are provided in a results page with a listof links to results (i.e., pages found to have content matching thequery) and possibly one or more advertisements. This format results in asearch process that is very structured and not particularlyentertaining. So, once a user locates information relevant to hisinterest, the user typically leaves the search service provider's webpage quickly. Further, there is little or no incentive for the user togo back to the search service provider's web page after the informationdesired has been located.

Thus, it would be desirable to provide a more entertaining orinteresting interface to actively engage a user of the search system toencourage the user to spend more time at the search service provider'sweb page.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide search systems and methodsusing one or more search-related activities to actively engage a user ofa search system. One or more aspects of the search-related activity canbe related to the context of the search. With activities that are insome way related to the search being performed by the user, theactivities can be more relevant and more appealing to the user.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a method of activelyengaging a user of a search system can include receiving from the user asearch query for a search of a corpus of information and providing theuser with search results for the search. The user can also be promptedto participate in a search-related activity wherein at least one aspectof the search-related activity is dependent or a context of the search.User input for performing the search-related activity can be acceptedand an activity response can be provided to the user.

The context of the search can include, but is not limited to one or moreof the search query, a user identifier of a searcher, contents of thesearch results, a search history for the user, advertisements usedwithout search context elements, and a time of day of the search. Searchrelated activities can include, but are not limited to an instant wingame, a riddle game, a search query competition, a link location game, aguessing game, a link collection competition, a chain type riddle game,and/or an elimination type puzzle competition.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an information retrieval and communicationnetwork according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an information retrieval and communicationnetwork according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating major functional components of asearch server and activity system according to one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a process for actively engaging auser of a search system according to one embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a process for actively engaging auser of a search system using an instant win game according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process for actively engaging auser of a search system using a riddle game according to one embodimentof the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a process for actively engaging auser of a search system using a search query competition according toone embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a process for actively engaging auser of a search system using a link location game according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a process for actively engaging auser of a search system using a guessing game according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a process for actively engaging auser of a search system using a link collection competition according toone embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a process for actively engaging auser of a search system using a chain-type riddle game according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a process for actively engaging auser of a search system using an elimination-type riddle competitionaccording to one embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Methods and systems are described herein for making a user's interactionwith a search service provider's web page more entertaining andengaging. As will be described, embodiments of the present inventionprovide for using one or more search-related activities to activelyengage a user of a search system. One or more aspects of thesearch-related activity can be related to the context of the search.With activities that are in some way related to the search beingperformed by the user, the activities can be more relevant and moreappealing to the user.

The context of the search can include, but is not limited to, the searchquery, a user identifier of a searcher, contents of the search results,a search history for the user, advertisements used without searchcontext elements, and a time of day of the search. Activities related tothe context of the search can add a variety of gaming or competitiveelements that address different audiences.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an information retrieval and communicationnetwork according to one embodiment of the present invention. Thisexample illustrates a general overview of an information retrieval andcommunication network 10 including a client system 20. In computernetwork 10, client system 20 is coupled through the Internet 40, orother communication network, e.g., over any local area network (LAN) orwide area network (WAN) connection, to any number of server systems 50 ₁to 50 _(N). As will be described herein, client system 20 is configuredaccording to the present invention to communicate with any of serversystems 50 ₁ to 50 _(N), e.g., to access, receive, retrieve and displaymedia content and other information such as web pages.

Several elements in the system shown in FIG. 1 include conventional,well-known elements that need not be explained in detail here. Forexample, client system 20 could include a desktop personal computer,workstation, laptop, personal digital assistant (PDA), cell phone, orany Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) enabled device or any other computingdevice capable of interfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet.Client system 20 typically runs a browsing program, such as Microsoft'sInternet Explorer™ browser, Netscape Navigator™ browser, Mozilla™browser, Opera™ browser, or a WAP-enabled browser in the case of a cellphone, PDA or other wireless device, or the like, allowing a user ofclient system 20 to access, process and view information and pagesavailable to it from server systems 50 ₁ to 50 _(N) over Internet 40.Client system 20 also typically includes one or more user interfacedevices 22, such as a keyboard, a mouse, touch screen, pen or the like,for interacting with a graphical user interface (GUI) provided by thebrowser on a display (e.g., monitor screen, LCD display, etc.), inconjunction with pages, forms and other information provided by serversystems 50 ₁ to 50 _(N) or other servers. The present invention issuitable for use with the Internet, which refers to a specific globalinter-network of networks. However, it should be understood that othernetworks can be used instead of or in addition to the Internet, such asan intranet, an extranet, a virtual private network (VPN), a non-TCP/IPbased network, any LAN or WAN or the like.

According to one embodiment, client system 20 and all of its componentsare operator configurable using an application including computer coderun using a central processing unit such as an Intel Pentium™ processor,AMD Athlon™ processor, or the like or multiple processors. Computer codefor operating and configuring client system 20 to communicate, processand display data and media content as described herein is preferablydownloaded and stored on a hard disk, but the entire program code, orportions thereof, may also be stored in any other volatile ornon-volatile memory medium or device as is well known, such as a ROM orRAM, or provided on any media capable of storing program code, such as acompact disk (CD) medium, a digital versatile disk (DVD) medium, afloppy disk, and the like. Additionally, the entire program code, orportions thereof, may be transmitted and downloaded from a softwaresource, e.g., from one of server systems 50 ₁ to 50 _(N) to clientsystem 20 over the Internet, or transmitted over any other networkconnection (e.g., extranet, VPN, LAN, or other conventional networks)using any communication medium and protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS,Ethernet, or other conventional media and protocols).

It should be appreciated that computer code for implementing aspects ofthe present invention can be C, C++, HTML, XML, Java, JavaScript, etc.code, or any other suitable scripting language (e.g., VBScript), or anyother suitable programming language that can be executed on clientsystem 20 or compiled to execute on client system 20. In someembodiments, no code is downloaded to client system 20, and needed codeis executed by a server, or code already present at client system 20 isexecuted.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an information retrieval and communicationnetwork according to another embodiment of the present invention. Thisexample illustrates another information retrieval and communicationnetwork 110 for communicating media content. As shown, network 110includes client system 120, one or more content server systems 150, anda search server system 160. In network 110, client system 120 iscommunicably coupled through Internet 140 or other communication networkto server systems 150 and 160. As described above, client system 120 andits components are configured to communicate with server systems 150 and160 and other server systems over the Internet 140 or othercommunication networks.

According to one embodiment, a client application (represented as module125) executing on client system 120 includes instructions forcontrolling client system 120 and its components to communicate withserver systems 150 and 160 and to process and display data contentreceived therefrom. Client application 125 is preferably transmitted anddownloaded to client system 120 from a software source such as a remoteserver system (e.g., server systems 150, server system 160 or otherremote server system), although client application module 125 can beprovided on any software storage medium such as a floppy disk, CD, DVD,etc., as described above. For example, in one aspect, client applicationmodule 125 may be provided over the Internet 140 to client system 120 inan HTML wrapper including various controls such as, for example,embedded JavaScript or Active X controls, for manipulating data andrendering data in various objects, frames and windows.

Additionally, client application module 125 includes various softwaremodules for processing data and media content, such as a specializedsearch module 126 for processing search requests and search result data,a user interface module 127 for rendering data and media content in textand data frames and active windows, e.g., browser windows and dialogboxes, and an application interface module 128 for interfacing andcommunicating with various applications executing on client 120.Examples of applications executing on client system 120 with whichapplication interface module 128 is preferably configured to interfaceaccording to aspects of the present invention include various e-mailapplications, instant messaging (IM) applications, browser applications,document management applications and others. Further, user interfacemodule 127 may include a browser, such as a default browser configuredon client system 120 or a different browser.

According to one embodiment, search server system 160 is configured toprovide search result data and media content to client system 120, andcontent server system 150 is configured to provide data and mediacontent such as web pages to client system 120, for example, in responseto links selected in search result pages provided by search serversystem 160. In some variations, search server system 160 returns contentas well as, or instead of, links and/or other references to content.

Query response module 162 in one embodiment references various pageindexes 170 that are populated with, e.g., pages, links to pages, datarepresenting the content of indexed pages, etc. Page indexes may begenerated by various collection technologies including an automatic webcrawler 172, and/or various spiders, etc., as well as manual orsemi-automatic classification algorithms and interfaces for classifyingand ranking web pages within a hierarchical structure. Thesetechnologies may be implemented in search server system 160 or in aseparate system (e.g., web crawler 172) that generates a page index 170and makes it available to search server system 160. Various page indeximplementations and formats are known in the art and may be used forpage index 170.

Query response module 162 is configured to provide data responsive tovarious search requests (queries) received from a client system 120, inparticular from search module 126. As used herein, the term “query”encompasses any request from a user (e.g., via client 120) to searchserver 160 that can be satisfied by searching the Web (or other corpus)indexed by page index 170. In one embodiment, a user is presented with asearch interface via search module 126. The interface may include a textbox into which a user may enter a query (e.g., by typing), check boxesand/or radio buttons for selecting from predefined queries, a directoryor other structure enabling the user to limit search to a predefinedsubset of the full search corpus (e.g., to certain web sites or acategorical subsection within page index 170), etc. Any search interfacemay be used.

Query response module 162 is advantageously configured with searchrelated algorithms for processing and ranking web pages relative to agiven query (e.g., based on a combination of logical relevance, asmeasured by patterns of occurrence of search terms extracted from thequery; context identifiers associated with search terms and/orparticular pages or sites; page sponsorship; connectivity data collectedfrom multiple pages; etc.). For example, query response module 162 mayparse a received query to extract one or more search terms, then accesspage index 170 using the search terms, thereby generating a list of“hits”, i.e., pages or sites (or references to pages or sites) that aredetermined to have at least some relevance to the query. Query responsemodule 162 may then rank the hits using one or more ranking algorithms.Particular algorithms for identifying and ranking hits are not criticalto the present invention, and conventional algorithms may be used.

Search server system 160 is communicably coupled to a personalizationdatabase 166 that stores data pertaining to specific users of searchserver system 160 and to a page index 170 that provides an index to thecorpus to be searched (in some instances, the World Wide Web).Personalization database 166 and page index 170 may be implemented usinggenerally conventional database technologies.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, search serversystem 160 can also include context manager 164 and activity module 165.While activity module 165 is shown in this example as being part of thesearch server system 160, it should be understood that, in some cases,activity module 165 may be separate from search server system 160 andimplemented as a standalone system or as part of another system.Regardless of the exact implementation, context manager 164 and activitymodule 165 provide for actively engaging a user of search server system160. Generally speaking, search server system 160 can receive from theuser of client system 120 a search query for a search. As discussedabove, search server system 160 provides the user with search resultsfor the search. Additionally, activity module can prompt the user toparticipate in a search-related activity. The search server system 160,via activity module 165 can accept user input for performing thesearch-related activity and provide an activity response to the user.

As will be discussed in detail below with reference to FIGS. 5-12, thesearch related activities provided by activity module 165 can include anumber of games, competitions, and challenges and other interactiveactivities. Content and rules for providing these activities can bestored in one or more databases or information stores such as activitycontent database 166 and activity rules database 167 integral with orseparate from search server system 160. These databases 166 and 167 arereadable by activity module 165 and contain data such as text andgraphics to be sent to the user participating in the activity, rules tobe to be followed by the activity module such as when, how, to whichusers, etc. to make available a given activity, and may also includeadvertisements or other information provided by a third party to be sentto the user participating in n activity.

According to one embodiment, at least one aspect of the search-relatedactivity is related to a context of the search as determined by contextmanager 164. Context manager 164 can be adapted to determine the contextof the search based on the text, metadata, or other information relatedto the search request or response. The context of the search caninclude, but is not limited to, the search query, a user identifier of asearcher, contents of the search results, a search history for the user,advertisements used without search context elements, and a time of dayof the search. Activities related to the context of the search can add avariety of gaming or competitive elements that address differentaudiences.

It will be appreciated that the search system described herein isillustrative and that variations and modifications are possible. Thecontent server and search server system may be part of a singleorganization, e.g., a distributed server system such as that provided tousers by Yahoo! Inc., or they may be part of disparate organizations.Each server system generally includes at least one server and anassociated database system, and may include multiple servers andassociated database systems, and although shown as a single block, maybe geographically distributed. For example, all servers of a searchserver system may be located in close proximity to one another (e.g., ina server farm located in a single building or campus), or they may bedistributed at locations remote from one another (e.g., one or moreservers located in city A and one or more servers located in city B).Thus, as used herein, a “server system” typically includes one or morelogically and/or physically connected servers distributed locally oracross one or more geographic locations; the terms “server” and “serversystem” are used interchangeably. In addition, the query response moduleand activity module described herein may be implemented on the sameserver or on different servers.

The search server system may be configured with one or more page indexesand algorithms for accessing the page index(es) and providing searchresults to users in response to search queries received from clientsystems. The search server system might generate the page indexesitself, receive page indexes from another source (e.g., a separateserver system), or receive page indexes from another source and performfurther processing thereof (e.g., addition or updating of various pageinformation). In addition, while the search server system is describedas including a particular combination of component modules, it is to beunderstood that a division into modules is purely for convenience ofdescription; more, fewer, or different modules might be defined.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating major functional components of asearch server and activity system according to one embodiment of thepresent invention. This example includes search server system 160 asdiscussed above and illustrates in more detail major functionalcomponents of the system. It should be understood that the componentsshown and discussed here are offered for illustrative purposes only andactual implementations of a search server system can vary withoutdeparting from the scope of the present invention.

A user submitted query can be received by search server system 160 viainput/output module 305 which is connected with the user via theInternet or other communications medium. Upon receiving a query from theuser, input output module 305 passes the query 310 to query process 315which in turn parses the query string and reformats it into a searchrequest 320 to search engine 325. Search engine 325 then performs asearch of the corpus of information or index 170 as described above.

Upon completion of the search of the corpus 170, search engine 325 sendsa results set 330 to page construction module 345 which uses the resultsset 330 along with other information to generate a complete responsepage 380 for return to the user via input/output module 305. Pageconstruction module also receives standard page portions 340 fromstandard page generation module 335. The standard page portion 340generated by standard page generation module 335 can be a partiallyformed HTML or other format page representing the common portions andformatting of results listings. For example, standard page portion 340can include the search service provider's banner or other identifyinginformation as well as formatted placeholders into which the results set330 will be placed by page construction module 345 to form a properlyformatted results page.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, page constructionmodule 345 can also receive from activity component merger module anactivity portion 375 for inclusion in the complete response page 380. Asintroduced above, the activity system 365 can prompt the user, viaelements added to the results page, to participate in a search-relatedactivity. For example, activity system 365 can, via activity componentmerger module 370, cause a number of links, buttons, icons, or otherindications to be added to the results page, each indicationrepresenting an available search-related activity. The search serversystem 160, together with activity system 365 provide a number ofactivities contextually related to the search.

As will be discussed in detail below with reference to FIGS. 5-12, thesearch related activities provided by activity system 365 can include anumber of games, competitions, and challenges and other interactiveactivities. According to one embodiment, at least one aspect of thesearch-related activity is related to a context of the search asdetermined by context manager 164 based on information received fromsearch engine 325. Context manager 164 can be adapted to determine thecontext of the search based on the text, metadata, or other informationrelated to the search request or response. The context of the search caninclude, but is not limited to, the search query, a user identifier of asearcher, contents of the search results, a search history for the user,advertisements used without search context elements, and a time of dayof the search. Activities related to the context of the search can add avariety of gaming or competitive elements that address differentaudiences.

Additionally, page construction module 345 can receive advertisingportions 355 from advertisement system 350. Advertisement system 350 canrepresent systems of one or more entities paying for advertising on theresults page returned to the user by search server system 160.Advertising portion 355 represents the HTML to be added to the standardportions 340 of the results page such as graphics, text, and links tothe advertiser's website. As will be discussed below, the advertisingportions may be related to the activities provided by activity system365. That is, the advertisers may sponsor one or more of the activitiesprovided by the activity system 365 and in return receive placement ofadvertising on the completed response page 380 returned to the user.

Therefore, completed response page 380 includes standard portions 340,results sets 330, activity portions 340 and advertising portions 355. Asdiscussed, activity portions 340 represents a number of activitiescontextually related to the search and available to the user to activelyengage the user in the search process. Processes that can be performedby search server system 160, activity system 365 and other components toprovide these activities will now be discussed in detail.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a process for actively engaging auser of a search system according to one embodiment of the presentinvention. According to this embodiment, the search server systemreceives 405 from the user a search query for a search of a corpus ofinformation. The search server system performs 410 the search andprovides 415 the user with search results for the search. That is, asdescribed above, in response to the users request for a search, thesearch server performs a search and returns a list of links to pages orsites that are determined to have at least some relevance to the query.

As part of the page presenting the list of links to relevantinformation, the search server system can prompt 420 the user toparticipate in a search-related activity. That is, the results page caninclude one or more buttons, links, or other graphical or textualindications of the availability of one or more activities that arerelated to the search, i.e., have at least one aspect dependent on acontext of the search. For example, the results page can include anumber of buttons in a top or side frame or along a top edge of theresults page, each button representing a different available activityrelated to the results or other aspect of the search.

The context of the search can include, but is not limited to, one ormore of the search query, a user identifier of a searcher, contents ofthe search results, a search history for the user, advertisements usedwithout search context elements, and a time of day of the search. Forexample, as will be discussed in detail below, the search-relatedactivity may be a game or competition that involves correctly answeringa riddle or question or series of riddles or questions. In some cases,the topic or subject matter of the riddles or questions may be relatedto keywords used by the user in the search query or the contents of theresults returned by the search service provider.

After prompting 420 the user to participate in a search-relatedactivity, the search service system can accept 425 user input forperforming the search-related activity. That is, the search servicesystem can detect a user selection of the indication of availability ofthe search-related activity. For example, a mouse click on a button orlink indicating an activity can be detected. In response to a positive430 selection of the indication, the search service provider system canprovide an activity response to the user such as directing the user to apage for conducting the activity, opening a pop-up window providinginformation related to the activity, etc.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the search-relatedactivity may be sponsored by a commercial or other entity and caninclude advertising for that entity. Using the example introduced above,the search-related activity may be a game or competition that involvescorrectly answering a riddle or question or series of riddles orquestions. As will be discussed below, a prize or reward may be providedto users answering questions correctly or winning a competition. Suchprizes or rewards may be provided by one or more sponsors who, in returnreceives advertising from the search service provider in the form of abanner, pop-up window, etc. indicating “This prize provided by . . . ”or other similar messages.

While this discussion introduces many different types of activities,other activities are equally useful with embodiments of the presentinvention. Generally speaking any type of game, competition, challenge,or other activity for which one or more aspects of that activity can bemade to relate to the search context is considered to be equallyamenable to use with embodiments of the present invention. Someexemplary types of search-related activities are will now be discussedwith reference to FIGS. 5-12.

According to one embodiment, the search-related activity can comprise aninstant win game. Generally speaking, the instant win game awards aprize or reward to various users of the search service system on achance basis. The chance basis may be, for example, selection of a userat random, selection of every X number of user's (e.g., every 1,000,000queries), selection of a user at a particular time (e.g., every ½ hour),etc.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a process for actively engaging auser of a search system using instant prizes according to one embodimentof the present invention. In this example, the search service system,displays 505 as part of a display for the search results an indicationto the user to inform the user of availability of a reward. For example,a treasure box or other icon or graphic may be displayed on the pagedisplaying user's search results. The user can then click or otherwiseselect the indication to accept the prize. If 510 the user accepts theprize a message can be displayed to the user indicating the nature ofthe reward. For example, a pop-up window, overlay, or other mechanismcan be used to indicate to the user that “You have won US $5” or othermessage.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the nature of theprize can be dependent on the context of the search. That is, aparticular prize can be award based on a searches for particularkeywords. For example, a music CD featuring a particular band can begiven as a prize to every 1,000 users searching for the band's name orsporting event tickets can be given to every X number of user'ssearching for the team's name.

Additionally, the display of the prize information can include anadvertisement for one or more sponsors for the prize. For example, thedisplay may indicate “You have won US $5” with by a banner, graphic,text, etc. indicating one or more entities providing the prize and/orpaying for the advertisement. The search service provider may have anumber of different pricing arrangements with the sponsors. For example,the advertisement may be a “clickable” link to the sponsor's website. Inthis case, the search service provider may pay for the prize and thencharge the sponsor if the user clicks the ad to visit the sponsor'ssite. Alternatively, the sponsor may pay for the ad by providing theprize and/or paying a fee for the ad.

According to another embodiment, the search-related activity cancomprise a riddle game. In this activity, the user can select an icon orother indication on the search results page to receive a riddle orquestion that can be related to the context of the search. If the usercorrectly answers the riddle or question, a prize can be awarded.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process for actively engaging auser of a search system using a riddle game according to one embodimentof the present invention. In this example, the search service system,displays 605 an indication to the user as part of a display for thesearch results to inform the user of availability of a riddle orquestion. For example, a link, button, icon, or other graphic may bedisplayed on the page displaying the user's search results. The user canthen click or otherwise select the indication to participate. If 610 theuser accepts the riddle, the riddle or question can be displayed 615.For example, a pop-up, overlay, new web page, etc. may be displayed tothe user that includes the riddle or question and a text box or otherdevice through which the user can enter an answer. The message caninclude one or more question, instructions on how to participate, hints,etc.

The search service system accepts 620 the answer from the user andchecks 625 whether the answer is correct. If 625 the answer is correct,a message can be displayed 630 to the user indicating a reward or prize.As above, the display of the prize information can include anadvertisement for one or more sponsors for the prize. The sponsors maysupply the prize, pay for the advertisement, and/or have another feearrangement with the search service provider. If 625 the answer isincorrect, a message can be displayed 635 to the user indicating thathis answer is not correct.

According to another embodiment, the search-related activity cancomprise a search query competition. In this activity, the user canselect an icon or other indication on the search results page to receivea description of the competition and information on how to compete. Thecompetition can be to find a particularly hard-to-find piece ofinformation somewhere on the Internet. According to one embodiment, thehard-to-find information may be related to the context of the user'ssearch. If the user is the first to submit a search query that correctlylocates the hard-to-find information, a prize can be awarded.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a process for actively engaging auser of a search system using a search query competition according toone embodiment of the present invention. In this example, the searchservice system, displays 705 an indication to the user as part of adisplay for the search results to inform the user of availability of asearch query competition. For example, a link, button, icon, or othergraphic may be displayed on the page displaying the user's searchresults. The user can then click or otherwise select the indication toparticipate. If 710 the user accepts, information about the competitioncan be displayed 715. For example, a pop-up, overlay, new web page, etc.may be displayed to the user that includes instructions, rules, adescription of the hard-to-find information, etc. and a text box orother device through which the user can enter an answer.

The search service system can accept 720 a search query from the userand check 725 whether the search query is the first submitted tocorrectly locate the hard-to-find information. If 725 the search queryis the first correct query, a message can be displayed 730 to the userindicating a reward or prize. As above, the display of the prizeinformation can include an advertisement for one or more sponsors forthe prize. The sponsors may supply the prize, pay for the advertisement,and/or have another fee arrangement with the search service provider.According to one embodiment, the advertiser can pay a fee to the searchservice provider to locate the hard-to-find information on the sponsor'sweb page. If 725 the query is incorrect or is not the first correctquery, a message can be displayed 735 to the user indicating that he hasnot won.

According to another embodiment, the search-related activity cancomprise a link location game. In this activity, the user can select anicon or other indication on the search results page to receive adescription of the game. The game can be to find a specially markedpiece text somewhere on the Internet. According to one embodiment, thespecially marked text or its location may be related to the context ofthe user's search. If the user submits a search query containing thespecially marked text, a prize can be awarded.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a process for actively engaging auser of a search system using a link location game according to oneembodiment of the present invention. In this example, the search servicesystem, displays 805 an indication to the user as part of a display forthe search results to inform the user of availability of the linklocation game. For example, a link, button, icon, or other graphic maybe displayed on the page displaying the user's search results. The usercan then click or otherwise select the indication to participate. If 810the user accepts, a page containing the specially marked text can bedisplayed 815.

The search service system can accept 820 a search query from the userand check 825 whether the search query contains the specially markedtext. If 825 the search query contains the specially marked text, amessage can be displayed 830 to the user indicating a reward or prize.As above, the display of the prize information can include anadvertisement for one or more sponsors for the prize. The sponsors maysupply the prize, pay for the advertisement, and/or have another feearrangement with the search service provider. According to oneembodiment, the advertiser can pay a fee to the search service providerto locate the specially marked text on the sponsor's web page. If 825the query is incorrect or does not contain the specially marked text, amessage can be displayed 835 to the user indicating that he has not won.

According to another embodiment, the search-related activity cancomprise a guessing game. In this activity, the user can select an iconor other indication on the search results page to receive a descriptionof the game. The game can be to guess a predetermined search query.According to one embodiment, the predetermined search query may berelated to the context of the user's search. If the user submits asearch query matching the predetermined search query, a prize can beawarded.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a process for actively engaging auser of a search system using a guessing game according to oneembodiment of the present invention. In this example, the search servicesystem, displays 905 an indication to the user as part of a display forthe search results to inform the user of availability of the guessinggame. For example, a link, button, icon, or other graphic may bedisplayed on the page displaying the user's search results. The user canthen click or otherwise select the indication to participate. If 910 theuser accepts, information about the game can be displayed 915. Forexample, a pop-up, overlay, new web page, etc. may be displayed to theuser that includes instructions, rules, hints, etc. and a text box orother device through which the user can enter an answer.

The search service system can accept 920 a search query from the userand check 925 whether the search query matches the predetermined searchquery. If 925 the search query matches the predetermined search query, amessage can be displayed 930 to the user indicating a reward or prize.As above, the display of the prize information can include anadvertisement for one or more sponsors for the prize. The sponsors maysupply the prize, pay for the advertisement, and/or have another feearrangement with the search service provider. If 925 the query does notmatch the predetermined search query, a message can be displayed 935 tothe user indicating that he has not won.

According to another embodiment, the search-related activity cancomprise a link collection competition. In this activity, the user canselect an icon or other indication on the search results page to receivea description of the competition and information on how to compete. Thecompetition can be based on judging user submitted lists of links topages or other content related to a particular topic. According to oneembodiment, the topic may be related to the context of the user'ssearch. The user or users judged to have the top lists can be awarded aprize.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a process for actively engaging auser of a search system using a link collection competition according toone embodiment of the present invention. In this example, thecompetition includes collecting 1005 a list of links from the user. Thatis, the user can, through a page provided by the search service providersubmit his bookmarks or other list of links to pages or content relatedto the topic of the competition. The submitted lists can be judged 1010by the search service provider or by popular vote of users of the searchservice system based on any number of criteria. A reward can be awarded1015 to the user or users based on the judging.

According to another embodiment, the search-related activity cancomprise a chain-type riddle game. In this activity, the user can selectan icon or other indication on the search results page to receive ariddle or question that can be related to the context of the search. Ifthe user correctly answers the riddle or question, another riddle orquestion can be presented wherein the answer to the first riddle orquestion represents a hint to the answer for the second riddle orquestion. After successfully answering some number of riddles in thechain, a prize may be awarded to the user.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a process for actively engaging auser of a search system using a chain-type riddle game according to oneembodiment of the present invention. In this example, a first questioncan be displayed 1105 to the user. According to one embodiment, thenature or topic of the question can be contextually related to theuser's original query. The search service system accepts 1110 the firstanswer from the user and checks 1115 whether the answer is correct. If1115 the answer is correct, a second question can be displayed to theuser, wherein an answer to the second question requires knowledge of thefirst answer. That is, the riddles or questions are chained in the sensethe answers to successive questions require correct knowledge of theprevious answers. This process continues until 1126 a final answer isreached. With the final answer being correct, a message can be displayed930 to the user indicating a reward or prize. If 1115 an answer is notcorrect, a negative response can be displayed 1120 and the user allowedto try again.

According to another embodiment, the search-related activity cancomprise an elimination-type riddle competition. In this activity, theuser can select an icon or other indication on the search results pageto enter the competition. The competition can involve a number of usersreceiving a riddle or question that can be related to some common areaof interest. If the user correctly answers the riddle or question, hecan continue on to successively more difficult questions. However, ifthe user answers incorrectly, he is eliminated from the competition. Thefinal user or small group of users may be awarded a prize.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a process for actively engaging auser of a search system using an elimination-type riddle competitionaccording to one embodiment of the present invention. In this example,the competition begins with displaying 1205 a first question to the userand accepting 1210 a first answer from the user. If 1215 the firstanswer is incorrect, the user is eliminated 1220 from furthercompetition. However, if 1215 the answer is correct, the user advancesto a second question. This process continues until 1230 the final roundwhich may be some predetermined number of questions or may be when onlyone or some small number of users remain at which point the remaininguser(s) can be awarded 1235 a prize.

The embodiments described herein may make reference to Web sites, URLs,links, and other terminology specific to instances where the World WideWeb (or a subset thereof) serves as the search corpus. It should beunderstood, however, that the systems and methods described herein canbe adapted for use with a different search corpus (such as anelectronics database or document repository).

Computer programs incorporating various features of the presentinvention may be encoded on various computer readable media for storageand/or transmission; suitable media include magnetic disk or tape,optical storage media such as CD or DVD, flash memory, and carriersignals adapted for transmission via wired, optical, and/or wirelessnetworks conforming to a variety of protocols, including the Internet.Computer readable media encoded with the program code may be packagedwith a compatible device or provided separately from other devices(e.g., via Internet download).

While the present invention has been described with reference tospecific hardware and software components, those skilled in the art willappreciate that different combinations of hardware and/or softwarecomponents may also be used, and that particular operations described asbeing implemented in hardware might also be implemented in software orvice versa.

Thus, although the invention has been described with respect to specificembodiments, it will be appreciated that the invention is intended tocover all modifications and equivalents within the scope of thefollowing claims.

1. A method of actively engaging a user of a search system, the methodcomprising: receiving from the user a search query for a search of acorpus of information; providing the user with search results for thesearch; prompting the user to participate in a search-related activitywherein at least one aspect of the search-related activity is dependenton a context of the search; accepting user input for performing thesearch-related activity; and providing an activity response to the user.2. The method of claim 1, wherein the context of the search includes oneor more of the search query, a user identifier of a searcher, contentsof the search results, a search history for the user, advertisementsused without search context elements, and a time of day of the search.3. The method of claim 1, wherein the search-related activity comprisesan instant win game.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the instant wingame comprises: displaying an indication to the user as part of adisplay for the search results, the indication to inform the user ofavailability of a reward; and responsive to the user selecting theindication, displaying a message to the user indicating the nature ofthe reward, wherein the nature of the prize is dependent on the contextof the search.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the search-relatedactivity comprises a riddle game.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein theriddle game comprises: displaying a question to the user, wherein thequestion is dependent on the context of the search; accepting an answerfrom the user; and responsive to the answer being correct, displaying amessage to the user indicating a reward.
 7. The method of claim 1,wherein the search-related activity comprises a search querycompetition.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the search querycompetition comprises: displaying a description of hard-to-findinformation, wherein the hard-to-find information is dependent on thecontext of the search; accepting a search query from the user, thesearch query intended to locate the hard-to-find information; andresponsive to the search query being a first search query submitted tolocate the hard-to-find information, displaying a message to the userindicating a reward.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein thesearch-related activity comprises a link location game.
 10. The methodof claim 9, wherein the link location game comprises: displaying a linkto a page containing a specially marked link, wherein the pagecontaining the specially marked link is dependent on the context of thesearch; accepting a search query from the user; and responsive to thesearch query from the user being the specially marked link, displaying amessage to the user indicating a reward.
 11. The method of claim 1,wherein the search-related activity comprises a guessing game.
 12. Themethod of claim 11, wherein the guessing game comprises: accepting aguess search query from the user, the guess search query comprising anattempt to guess a predetermined search query; and responsive to thesearch query from the user matching the predetermined search query,displaying a message to the user indicating a reward.
 13. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the search-related activity comprises a link collectioncompetition.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the link collectioncompetition comprises: collecting a list of links from the user, whereina topic for the list of links is dependent on the context of the search;judging the list of links; and awarding a reward to the user based onsaid judging.
 15. The method of claim 1, wherein the search-relatedactivity comprises a chain-type riddle game.
 16. The method of claim 15,wherein the chain-type riddle game comprises: displaying a firstquestion to the user; accepting a first answer from the user; responsiveto the first answer being correct, displaying a second question to theuser, wherein an answer to the second question requires knowledge of thefirst answer.
 17. The method of claim 1, wherein the search-relatedactivity comprises an elimination-type puzzle competition.
 18. Themethod of claim 17, wherein the elimination-type puzzle competitioncomprises: displaying a first question to the user; accepting a firstanswer from the user; responsive to the first answer being correct,advancing the user to a second question; and responsive to the firstanswer being incorrect, eliminating the user from further participationin the activity.